S.F.'s success comes at cost for fans

STOCKTON - Jo Ann Jacobs happily walked out of Candlestick Park two weeks ago fully expecting to follow her favorite team to the Super Bowl for the sixth time.

Scott Linesburgh

STOCKTON - Jo Ann Jacobs happily walked out of Candlestick Park two weeks ago fully expecting to follow her favorite team to the Super Bowl for the sixth time.

But being a super fan can be super expensive. Jacobs will be attending a watch party in Stockton instead of traveling to New Orleans to see the San Francisco 49ers play the Baltimore Ravens.

Jacobs, a 68-year-old Stockton resident, has been a 49ers season ticket holder for 39 years. She said this would have been special for her because it's the first Super Bowl she and Ron, her husband of 11 years, would have attended together, and he had never been to New Orleans.

"Sadly, going to the Super Bowl isn't really for the average fan anymore," Jo Ann Jacobs said. "It's quite disappointing, we were so looking forward to it. I've been to the other five the 49ers played in and wanted to go to this one. But when you added everything up, it was ridiculous."

At the first Super Bowl in 1967, the most expensive ticket was $12 at the Orange Bowl in Miami and the cheapest was $6, which adjusted for inflation would be $41.24 today. But the price to go to the NFL championship game has far exceeded inflation in the past 46 years.

The face value of tickets for this year's Super Bowl range from $850 to $1,250. Trying to get a ticket through a secondary market can cost thousands, although prices have dropped in recent days, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. As of Friday, there were more than 3,400 tickets available through various sources.

"It's just one big corporate party," said 80-year-old Rosalie Mello of Stockton, the longtime president of the local 49ers Gold Rushers fan club. She went to her first 49ers game in 1951, became a season ticker holder in 1970 and has also been to the five other Super Bowl appearances by San Francisco.

But just like her friend and fellow fan club member Jo Ann Jacobs, Mello is staying in Stockton for this one.

"I'll be at my house," Mello said. "I don't like to watch with a lot of other people. Other people talk during the game."

Jo Ann Jacobs, who paid about $60 to see the 49ers play in their first Super Bowl in 1982, said as a season ticket holder, she was in a lottery to get tickets, but didn't win. She searched for ways to go, but the prices to get into the game weren't the only issue.

Airfare was extremely expensive, and she said one hotel 40 miles outside of the city which had horrible reviews online was charging $1,400 per night. It would have cost the Jacobs more than $15,000 to make the trip.

"We definitely would have gone if it was reasonable, but when you are talking $10,000 or $15,000 for a few days, that just doesn't sound right,' said Ron Jacobs, 78. "It's really disappointing that we're not going, but there's nothing you can do about it. It's too bad fans that have been there for years and supported the team can't go. To support them all the way, you'd have to be pretty wealthy."